Inside the unprepared city that ‘has to change’ after devastating floods leave lives in ruin
Verviers is nicknamed the water capital of its region because the city used the River Meuse to build its wealth in the textile industry.
The river flows through the centre of the Belgian town.
That’s why there was so much damage when it exploded over its banks a few days ago, turning the streets into torrents of water flowing several metres deep.
The town of Verviers is focused around the river
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The city, like so many others, simply wasn’t prepared.
As Verviers residents wearily clean the stinking mud out of their ruined homes, thoughts are turning to the fragility of the infrastructure that supports life here; how quickly all the fabric of our modern world was ripped apart.
There is still no power, no cabled internet, patchy mobile phone signal, and in some areas, no fresh water.
Many of the roads and bridges are shut, and the pavements are piled high with rubbish.
Nameer Laghzaoui takes us into his ruined pizza shop. Piles of gluey flour line the floor. He shows us the basement – all his wiring and fuse boxes sit, dripping.
Nameer Laghzaoui’s pizzeria, Pizza Grano, has no power or water
The water destroyed the kitchen
He said: “It is all gone. Ruined.”
I ask if he wants to go, move further away from the water.
“No, I will stay, I have to.”
His whole life savings are in this business, and he has no choice but to wait for insurance to pay out and hope it doesn’t happen again.
A few metres away we find Louis Pirout working hard to find out just how badly the town’s power supply and wiring has been damaged.
His job is to restore TV services
Louis Pirout checks the power to the town of Verviers in Belgium
A destroyed car in Verviers. Pic: Associated Press
Was the town ready, I asked?
“No. Absolutely not.
“We are a crowded town around the river which is why it was so bad.”
He doesn’t know how long it will take to get everything back on line.
There are huge holes in the pavements everywhere, exposing mangled pipes and cabling. It doesn’t look like a quick job.
Up and down the streets there are people delivering bottles of fresh water.
One of the reasons for that is businesses nearby aren’t open to sell anything.
There are holes in the pavement around Verviers
People are not abandoning their homes however
We ventured into an all but destroyed supermarket to find the owner, Francoise Wilmain, surveying the damage.
He cannot see how he will be able to reopen.
“It was my business, my life, it is finished.”
On one street closest to the river Meuse a huge clean up is underway. Mountains of furniture, pots, books pile high under the hot sun as people salvage what they can.
Valerie Corman told us how she thought the city didn’t give them enough warning.
The supermarket was destroyed during the floods
She said: “The city is going to have to change.”
She also said that she hopes during the rebuilding process, they find a way to create better flood defences, so if it happens again, the damage won’t be so great.
The ceasefire clock is ticking down and everyone in Gaza knows it.
In the calm, people have been flooding to hospitals looking for treatment – almost overwhelming doctors.
At a hospital in southern Gaza, a Sky News team filmed as patient after patient was brought in for treatment, many of them children, with undiagnosed illnesses.
Follow the Israel-Hamas war live, as more hostages are released
The hospital’s corridors were crammed, with the injured placed on rickety beds.
In one doctor’s room, mother after mother entered with their ill children, desperate for help.
There is a real fear of a major spread of disease among the civilians, who are largely homeless and barely finding enough food to survive.
Hygiene fears grow in Gaza
The head of the safety unit of the Ministry of Health in Gaza told Sky News the basic lack of hygiene and lack of clean water is making problems worse.
“There are many different types of diseases, such as skin diseases between the refugees, especially gut diseases and diarrhoea,” Estamily A’adeni explained.
“As you may know most of the displaced people have a basic lack of hygiene because of their evacuation, and lack of water hygiene, this is why we see an increase in some cases such as skin disease, respiratory illness, and children in particular are suffering from diarrhoea,” he added.
Mothers in a doctor’s room in Gaza
Estamily A’adeni in Gaza
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Aid deliveries have continued both to the south and the north of the Gaza Strip, and the quantity of it coming in has increased.
But aid agencies have consistently said it is hopelessly inadequate.
People are increasingly desperate, and they know that when the war resumes life will get even worse.
Hundreds of thousands have already moved south, and they face the very real prospect of having to move again.
Of course, the current ceasefire has been entirely dependent on the release of hostages in Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
At the permanent vigil for hostages at a square in Tel Aviv, it’s clear that people are desperate for them to be returned.
At the same time though, there is widespread support for a resumption of the war on Hamas. And this is a conundrum for the Israeli government and the military – and Hamas of course always knew it would be.
This complex process has so far been remarkably successful, with negotiators staying in constant touch with both Israel and Hamas.
The vigil site itself is dominated by an enormous, fully dressed dinner table with place settings for all the hostages. Silhouetted pictures of people are hung over the back of chairs to symbolise that they’re still missing.
Vigil in Tel Aviv
Chairs without the pictures represent the hostages who have been released and are now in hospital or back with their families in Israel.
Hundreds of people wander around the square looking at installations – including bound and blindfolded toy dolls that represent the children being held.
A few gazebos have been set up by survivors of the various kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on 7 October. Pictures of the dead and missing from the individual kibbutz adorn the gazebos, and people come to mourn and chat with friends and relatives.
In the crowd I met Sandra Cohen. I asked her if she, like others here, believed the war against Hamas had to restart, and I asked her about the complexities of the IDF’s tactics – how to attack Hamas and get the hostages out.
“They have a dilemma because getting them out and having a full destruction of the tunnels could put them in harm’s way, so they take it day by day and they do it slowly, obviously they have drones that watch and see what’s happening, but they do want to get them back alive, and we just have to wait and see what happens.”
Former United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger has died aged 100.
He passed away at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday, according to a statement from Kissinger Associates Inc.
The veteran politician had major influence on American foreign policy under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Born in Germany in 1923, Mr Kissinger fled the Nazi regime with his family as a teenager and settled in the US in 1938.
During eight years as a national security adviser and secretary of state, Dr Kissinger was involved in major foreign policy events including the first example of “shuttle diplomacy” seeking peace in the Middle East, secret negotiations with China to defrost relations between the burgeoning superpowers and the instigation of the Paris peace talks seeking an end to the Vietnam conflict.
Dr Kissinger with President Gerald Ford and Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1975
Analysis: A ‘top diplomat’ for some, a ‘war criminal’ for others
In 1973 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to negotiate an end to the Vietnam War.
However, Dr Kissinger, along with President Nixon, also bore the brunt of criticism from the US’s allies following the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces in 1975 as the remaining US personnel fled what is now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
Henry Kissinger meeting President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this year. Pic: AP
His influence over US diplomacy – which continued long after he left office – has not been without controversy, and some activists called for him to be prosecuted for war crimes.
He remained active in politics, even after his 100th birthday in May, attending meetings in the White House, publishing a book on leadership styles, and testifying before a Senate committee about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.
In July 2023 he made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During his early life, after becoming a naturalised US citizen in 1943, Dr Kissinger joined the US Army the same year and was awarded a Bronze Star.
He would go on to serve with US counter intelligence in occupied Germany.
Dr Kissinger earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees at Harvard University, where he taught international relations for almost 20 years before President Nixon appointed him national security advisor in 1969.
Henry Kissinger with Richard Nixon and Israeli prime minister Golda Meir
He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy Maginnes Kissinger, two children by his first marriage, David and Elizabeth, and five grandchildren.
According to the statement from Kissinger Associates: “He will be interred at a private family service. At a later date, there will be a memorial service in New York City.”
Senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid tribute to Dr Kissinger on X describing him as a “great one” and saying: “Fortunate indeed is America for his lifetime of diplomacy, wisdom, and love of freedom.”
Winston Lord, former US ambassador to China and Dr Kissinger’s one time special assistant said: “The world has lost a tireless advocate for peace.
“America has lost a towering champion for the national interest. I have lost a cherished friend and mentor.
“Henry blended the European sense of tragedy and the American immigrant’s sense of hope.”
Cindy McCain, the wife of late Senator John McCain said: “Henry Kissinger was ever present in my late husband’s life.
“While John was a POW and in the later years as a Senator & statesman.
“The McCain family will miss his wit, charm, and intelligence terribly.”
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